#4222
South African Class 16E
🇿🇦 South Africa ·built by Transwerk· from 1974· class of South African double electric locomotives
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2 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. Class 6E1 Series 6 E1709 (16-422B): User:John Middleton· CC BY-SA 3.0
- 2. SAR Class 16E 16-410B: Col André Kritzinger· CC BY-SA 3.0
what is it?
The Spoornet Class 16E of 1990 was a South African electric locomotive. During 1990 and 1991, Spoornet semi-permanently coupled several pairs of otherwise unmodified Series 2 to Series 9 Class 6E1 electric locomotives, reclassified them to Class 16E and allocated a single shared unit number to each pair, with the individual locomotives in the pairs inscribed "A" or "B".
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 52 years ago, in 1974.
- Weighs about as much as 15 African elephants (~6 t each).
electric locomotive: Draws power from overhead wires or a third rail and pulls separate carriages.
spec sheet
- built
- 1974–1979
- in service from
- 1990
- number built
- —
- kind
- Electric
- traction
- electric
- origin
- 🇿🇦 South Africa
- builders
- Transwerk
- designer
- Union Carriage & Wagon
- operators
- Transnet Freight Rail
- top speed
- 113 km/h
- power
- —
- gauge
- 1,067 mm Cape gauge
- electric system
- 3 kV DC catenary
- wheel arrangement
- Bo′Bo′
- weight
- 88.9 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q7565480, Wikipedia: South African Class 16E (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.